by Sister Mary Fidelis, C.K.
Directress of Novices and Postulants
School Sisters of Christ the King
As the days get shorter, and the Church year draws to a close, the topic of time has come to my mind. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with time. Mostly hate. It seems I never have enough of it. It’s true that I don’t have enough of it (24 hours/day, just like everyone else) when I consider what I think I should be doing with it. I picture a perfect life (virtuous, productive, etc.) that, alas! is not what I’m living.
But what if I’ve been looking at it all wrong? What if my perfect life isn’t what God had in mind for me? What if my life and my time are gifts He has given so that I would simply know that I came from Him and then love Him in return?
I’ve gleaned a number of insights into time from Wilfrid Stinissen’s book “Eternity in the Midst of Time,” the Church document Faciem Tuam, and St. Edith Stein.
I am good.
God created me as His child. He longs for me to accept myself as a gift of the Creator, “to say “yes” to coming into being from God.” (Faciem Tuam, 7)
Time is good.
God created time when He created the world. Therefore it is good. “We can conclude that time is something good from the fact that God has revealed himself in time.” (Stinissen, 24)
Time is a sign of God’s patience.
“Most people do not answer immediately when they hear God knocking. But God does not give up. He waits, and, by giving us time, he shows what a great price he puts on our answer.” (Stinissen, 28)
Time allows us to grow and to learn to love.
“In reality, man is not ready when he comes forth from the hands of God…. The purpose of time is precisely so that we can develop and grow…. Every second is given to us in order to grow into the love we have already received. Time is the environment, the divine environment that is appropriate for all who have not yet reached perfection but are in the process of becoming perfect.” (Stinissen, 34)
We can trust our Father (who art in heaven).
“Let go of your plans. The first hour of your morning belongs to God. Tackle the day’s work that He charges you with and He will give you the power to accomplish it…. And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands and leave it with Him.” (Edith Stein)
My current assignment is the formation of young religious sisters. As it does for the development of our human life from conception to adulthood, the formation of a young woman into a mature religious takes time. One personal blessing for me is that I’ve become more patient with myself as I see in them the need for time in their growth and development. Growth is slow, gradual and requires patience in the formator and in the young person alike. It cannot be hurried or controlled, especially as formation is a supernatural process. Only God can do it, in cooperation with the young person.
Pope Francis recently touched on the topic of gratitude in his Angelus address (Oct. 8, 2023). “When a person deceives himself into thinking that he does things on his own, and he forgets to be grateful, he forgets the real basis of life: that good comes from the grace of God, that good comes from his free gift.” Our life is a gift from our heavenly Father. The time we have been given, including this moment, now, is a gift.
What a wonderful day it would be if you and I received today with joy, letting Him be the author, and became who we truly are! It would make God’s day, too!
